Turtle Patrol Educates Charleston Animal Society Scholars

On Tuesday, July 25th Turtle Patrol members Joshua and Amanda Shilko made a presentation to the Charleston Animal Society Scholars Camp. This camp is a great event for the area's youth (ages 9-11) and is among many that the Charleston Animal Society hosts throughout the year. More information on this camp can be found at https://www.charlestonanimalsociety.org/2017-cas-scholars/.

The Shilko’s presentation, which followed a Skype session with the Turtle Hospital staff at the South Carolina Aquarium, explained the purpose of the Seabrook Island Turtle Patrol and how each one of the kids at the camp can help turtles in the future. They also reviewed the life cycle of the loggerhead sea turtle in detail and spoke about other endangered sea turtle species indigenous to the Charleston area. The participants got to see several pictures and videos taken on the beaches of Seabrook Island depicting sea turtles and the Turtle Patrol in action.

The presentation ended with some sea turtle trivia questions for the kids. They all received special red filter stickers for their flashlights. They asked many great questions and became instant loggerhead experts! Their love of all animals was apparent and the Turtle Patrol sincerely thanks the kids and the staff at the Charleston Animal Society for hosting Joshua and Amanda.

Amanda & Joshua Shilko

Amanda & Joshua Shilko

Nest 68

Nest 68 was found by a group of visitors around 11: 30 PM Saturday when they noticed the hatchlings coming out. The visitors were still there and the hatchlings still coming out when Valerie & Mark Doane & Lisa Hand walked the beach Sunday morning.  The Doanes were impressed with the knowledge of the visitors. It turns out they had been visiting Seabrook Island for several years and always followed the Turtle Patrol events.  Nice to know our education programs are working. There were also 4 false crawls so we know the turtles are still out there. Hopefully, there are still more nests to come.

Inventory Report - Nest 22

Nest #22 was found by Melanie Jerome. Gayle Evans and Anne Snelgrove . The nest had 103 eggs and it hatched in 54 days.

Shells                          96                 

Unhatched eggs            6              

Dead hatchlings            1

Live hatchlings              8

Total live                      95

Hatch success            93.2%

Emergence success   84.4%

Sea Turtle Salad???

We never envisioned this site as a place to share recipes but this was too good to resist. Here's an idea from a long term visitor to Seabrook Island.......

Hello Turtle Patrol  and fans,

Love following your adventures from St Louis MO and of course the action when we are on the island yearly since 1979. Last summer I made a cute commemorative salad at one of our family gatherings. All the credit goes to pinterest for the idea and to you all for your fine work.

You have my permission to post on the website if you chose to do so.

I always enjoy the extra posts like the "mermaids" and the recent "Make a Wish" story too.

All the best,

Bev Danis